Fish-Hawk.Net

There's this tiny body of water in my home town(sudbury) called Minnow lake...known for years as a dirty stink puddle of hummen waste and garbage. Forchently for the lake and wield life it should suport, the city has spent the last 40 years or so "re-habbing" the water. this includes years of dregging and a water fountin right in the lake. So now the the birds have a clean home as well as turtles, beavers, muskrats and of course FISH.
resently the have been a number pike that have made there way from Ramsey lake into this pondish ecosystem feeding on the abundent suply of smaller fish. there are reports coming in of people pulling out huge northern pike ware befor there was only rock bass to hook.
so of course i've gone down and checked this out for my self and lo..theres pike in that there pond...i cought 2 10 inchers last week and a couple of smaller ones but im going back this evning to try and find me a good fighter.
my only problem is the amount of weeds. i spend most of my time realing in saled insted of fish...iv'e tryed some weedless set ups but nothing be bighting on them...only thing that seems to work are spoons.
and hoestly thats alll i've ever realy used due to the fact that im prity new to fishing for fish...i used to just go with friends to get out on the lakes and stuff like that...
if any one has any advice on how to fish large weed beds for pike(the whole lake is prity much one weed bed) i would be very greatful...
thank you.

You can buy weedless spoons but I would try a spinner bait. In black or white will word for pike. Spinner baits are good as they only have one hook tilted upwards to you will get less weeds.

Large topwaters would prpbably work as well.

thanx guys...all i have in my arsinle is some spinner thing i think is called a "june bug"it was down in the bottom of my tackle box....going to give it a try in like an hour....hoping to get to a bait shop soon to pick up some
top water tackle..

The safety pin spinner baits are about $2.50 at Canadian Tire..I like the white as well. Try reeling with your rod up higher to keep the bait skimming the weed tops. Pike will come up for it.

If you can access any of the weed edges that border deeper water, you might find some pike of a better size.

Fighting weeds can be annoying. Try a timberdoodle or Johnson's silver minnow which do a little better in the jungles -- you can tip them with inexpensive plastic grubs.

I agree beetlespins are inexpensive yet effective and for years this is about all I'd fish with for pike. Spinnerbaits aren't too pricey either and I think they're great for toothies. You can kind of burn them in over the thicker pads without usually snagging up.

Good luck to you "newbie". Hope we get a report with some success stories from you.

W.

Hey Fishingnewbee, welcome to the site.

Now I don't really know just how much weeds you are talking about. Is it jam packed with weeds all the way to the surface, or are they closer to the bottom with enough water to skim over them?

A spinner bait is an excellent choice if you can do what Salmon is saying and keep the bait at the top by raising your rod tip and reeling just fast enough so that it breaks the surface and makes some noice. You'll get some weeks of course, but the Pike love these things. Try tipping the spinner bait with a small curly tailed grub....white if using a black spinner bait, black if using a white spinner bait, those are my favorites for Pike. I'd had success with red as well, but black, white, and gold are the ones I like the best.

You can also use a "buzzbait", these are designed to be reeled on the surface and they make a lot of noise too, however if the weeds are up on the surface, you may need to clean it off so that the spinning buzz blade keeps on spinning as the weeds will wrap around it much like they do around a prop, and you need to clear it so that it keeps on spinnin.

If there are a lot of weeds, and the fish are in them, chances are that there are pockets below them, or little highways where they swim in and out. Try using a texas rigged tube with bullet sinker and a small leader. Just keep popping that into the weeds and shake it for a bit, watch your line and keep in constant tune with the bait by not letting your line go slack. You may or may not feel a hit, but you'll learn to recognize weight and see your line moving when it should not.......there'll be a fish on the end if this is the case. For Pike, white is a killer.....at least that's the most I lose when I'm bass fishing and there are pike around since I don't use a leader when bass fishing.

If there are frogs in them there waters....or even if there are not, I would also try a tournament or scum frog, or a rat. Cast it out, and pulling it gently over the weeds. When a fish hits....you'll see it....wait a second to make sure it has the frog in its mouth, and then set the hook. If it misses the bait, leave it there and twitch it....the fish will come back 90% of the time for a second pass, third, and even 4th pass. If it doesn't get it by then, try for another fish....cause this one is either blink or stupid.

A couple ideas for ya. Good luck and I hope to see some pics soon.
Cheers,